Social Media Marketing A case study of VisitDenmark in Hamburg

Internship Report – 9th Semester MA. Tourism at Aalborg University Copenhagen

Amanda Mary Søndergård Bibelheimer January 2014

Social Media Marketing at VisitDenmark Amanda Bibelheimer

1. Introduction

Social Media marketing has become an integrated part of most marketing strategies today (Mangold & Faulds, 2009), and with good reason. Social Media has in many ways become the new way to communicate in the 21st century, and studies show that 75 % of all internet users are members of at least one Social Networking Site (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Social Media is taking the power away from companies, and giving it to consumers, which forces industries to be innovative. Today, it is commonly expected that a company will be present on Social Media sites. Hence, if they are not, it will compromise their competitive advantage. Social Media is no longer just a way to communicate with friends, but to a growing extent it is a platform where people search for information and rely on the reviews of other users. It is also a unique marketing platform for companies and can be very successful if used correctly. One of the best examples of Social Media effectiveness was “The best job in the world” Campaign by Tourism Queensland, which also won an award for best use of Social Media (Unknown, 2010). This campaign shows the impressive amount of media coverage that can be generated by Social Media and by word of mouth and mouse. Especially in Tourism, Social Media is important. Due to the international nature and intangibility of the “product” that is sold, user-generated reviews and comments will be determinant in the decision-making process of consumers. For a tourism organization such as VisitDenmark, the goal of the marketing strategy is not to sell products, but rather to increase awareness of Denmark as a destination. This is done in various ways, and differs according to the market within the nine offices around the world. Main strategies are communicated from the Main Office in Denmark, but every market director has the task of designing the correct marketing strategy for their market. The German office of VisitDenmark consists of one market director and 12 employees (in 2013), which are responsible for increasing the number of German tourists in Denmark. VisitDenmark uses largely online marketing, which also includes Social Media. This paper aims to investigate how Social Media is used in the marketing of VisitDenmark in Germany.

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Social Media Marketing at VisitDenmark Amanda Bibelheimer

2. Methodology

This part is concerned with the methodological approach and explains the reasons for the chosen methods.

2.1 Research question “In what way does VisitDenmark use Social Media to increase the effectiveness of their market communication?”

2.2 Research process The research for this paper will take place during my internship in the company. It will take place alongside my regular job-tasks and will not be limited to a specific person in the company or time period within the six months. Information will be gathered from several different members of the staff, as new information is made available. The internship takes place from August 1 st 2013 to February 1st 2014. This paper will be based on both primary and secondary data sources. Primary data will consist of quantitative and qualitative data collected at VisitDenmark. The quantitative data includes internal analyses, presentations, documents and strategies that are available either on the VisitDenmark intranet or that I will gain access to through other employees. Qualitative data statements, opinions and communication with employees will be used, as this will substitute for personal interviews. Secondary sources are mainly literature on the subjects of Social Media marketing. These include published articles from various academic online sources such as tourism and marketing-related journals, and printed material such as books.

2.3 Research philosophy The research philosophy affects how the research is conducted, and if it will be based on qualitative or quantitative data. It shows the way knowledge and reality is understood (Hathaway, 1995), which leads to certain ways of conducting and analyzing research. When deciding on a research philosophy, it is necessary to clarify which epistemological and ontological positions are taken. The epistemological and ontological views applied to this research are explained below. 3

Social Media Marketing at VisitDenmark Amanda Bibelheimer 2.3.1 Epistemology and Ontology Epistemology can be defined as the study of knowledge. Knowledge can be viewed in different ways, depending on the epistemological approach (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2007). The approach taken determines what is seen as acceptable knowledge, or “truth” in a study. The main philosophies within epistemology are positivism and interpretivism. Whereas epistemology is concerned with what is acceptable knowledge, ontology is concerned with the nature of what constitutes reality within a study (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2007). Within ontology there are several philosophical views, the most common views being objectivism and subjectivism (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2007). For this research the pragmatic view is followed. Pragmatism is a philosophy which is used with the mixed methods approach (Johnson & Onwuegbuzie, 2004). Among researchers there has always been a debate on which method is the most useful, and often it is assumed that when deciding on methodology for a research, one must use only quantitative or qualitative data. However, pragmatists argue that the research question is more important than the research philosophy and believe that a mixed-methods approach can be beneficial to research. They argue that the methods are equally good and that the choice of which to use should depend on the research question (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2007).

2.4 Chosen methods for primary data collection Since this paper is concerned with a company, the quantitative data research will be limited to what is available to me as an intern. Internal documents regarding the use and strategies of Social Media will be used. Furthermore, qualitative participant observation will have a dominant role in primary data gathering. 2.4.1 Participant observation According to Kelly (1978), participant observation is a neglected form of research in management and business research. Nevertheless, it is a valuable tool and can be used either alone or together with other methods (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2007). Participant observation is, according to Gill & Johnson, where “the researcher attempts to participate fully in the lives and activities of subjects and thus becomes a member of their group, organization or community” (2002:144).

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Social Media Marketing at VisitDenmark Amanda Bibelheimer There are different levels of participation observation, as presented by both Bryman (2008) and Saunders et al. (2007), and shown in figure 1. The figure shows the types of participant observers according to level of involvement. The most involved participant is the complete observer. In order to be a complete observer, the true identity of the researcher must not be revealed (Bryman, 2008).

Figure 1: Gold’s classification of participant observer roles (as cited in Bryman, 2008:.411)

The second most involved type of observer is the participant-as-observer, which best matches the research carried out for this paper. In this type of research, the observer reveals the purpose of the research, and is interested in gaining the trust of the group (Saunders et al., 2007). This way the researcher gains access to restricted documents and can ask further questions to improve understanding (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2007). As an observer, it is possible to take notes along the way, which can be used in the analysis. Additionally, the observer has the possibility of conducting interviews along the way, or simply asking questions which will enhance understanding. In this research, asking questions along the way will be the primary method applied.

2.5 Scope The scope of this research is limited to the VisitDenmark office in Hamburg, with reference to the Main Office in Denmark. The paper aims to analyze and discuss the Social Media marketing activities at the office in Hamburg, and how this can improve the effectiveness of market communications. In order to analyze the situation at the Hamburg office, it is also necessary to look also at the Social Media initiatives from Headquarters in Denmark, since this is where the strategies are developed and communicated from. Also, many activities from Denmark are used

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Social Media Marketing at VisitDenmark Amanda Bibelheimer around the world and are therefore not specific to the German market. This paper does not take into account any of the market-communication approaches of the other market offices around the world.

2.6 Limitations There are several limitations to participant observation. One is that participant observation is usually used in psychological and social studies (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2007) and is therefore not ideally suited to this type of research. However, I have found it relevant to use it because the aim of the research is to understand how Social Media is used at VisitDenmark. And taking part in the daily tasks, including Social-Media marketing is an essential part of the research. Another limitation is time, in the sense that many of the employees at VisitDenmark are very busy, and might not always have time to answer questions or to participate in interviews within the time frame set for this research. Therefore, interviews may not be possible for this research, and instead statements and opinions which are observed in day-to-day communication with employees will be used as primary data instead. As a researcher, I depend on the help of the VisitDenmark employees, and must trust that the information given by them is valid. As not all material can be found online on the company’s intranet, it is up to the employees to allow access to relevant information, and this may affect the results if not all the information is given to me.

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Social Media Marketing at VisitDenmark Amanda Bibelheimer

3. Literature Review / Theory

3.1 What is Social Media Social Media is a widely-used term which, which has become increasingly popular in the 21st Century (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). It is closely linked to the concepts of Web 2.0 and usergenerated content (UCG) (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). According to Kaplan & Haenlein (2010) Social Media is a result of the innovations that have come from Web 2.0 and gives way to a platform for user-generated content (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Since the term Social Media is vague, many types of platforms and websites fall under this category, and to further divide them into categories can be difficult. However, Kaplan & Haenlein (2010) present six different types of Social Media, which are described as: Collaborative projects are websites that give users the possibility to co-create the content, such as the online encyclopedia “Wikipedia” (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010) Blogs are one of the oldest forms of Social Media and most often are controlled by one person, and give users the possibility to comment (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010) Content communities have the main objective of sharing content, in various forms. Sites such as “YouTube”, “Flickr” and “Slideshare” are some of the most used content communities. (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010) Social networking sites (SNS) will be the main focus of this paper, and this term covers the sites that enable users to create personal profiles, invite friends and share information. The most used SNS today is Facebook (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Virtual game worlds replicate the real world with the virtual world, giving users the possibility to interact within cyberspace in the way they would in real life. This has been implemented in both Sony’s Playstation and Microsoft’s Xbox (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Virtual social worlds give users the opportunity to interact more freely in cyberspace, as if being in the real world, but with no rules. One of the popular virtual social worlds is the application “Second Life” (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). According to research presented in Kaplan & Haenlein

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Social Media Marketing at VisitDenmark Amanda Bibelheimer (2010), 75 percent of all internet consumers are users of Social Media, and the Social Networking Sites are among the most popular sites in terms of time spent (Michaelidou, Siamagka, & Christodoulides, 2011). In 2009, the SNS Facebook ranked number one, with 206,9 million users (Michaelidou, Siamagka, & Christodoulides, 2011) and today the number of users has reached 1,11 billion (The Associated Press, 2013).

3.2 Social media in marketing The increase in Social Media users has changed the way companies must market their products (Dahlen, Lange, & Smith, 2010), and Social Media must be considered in their integrated marketing communication (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). Even though it has become a widely acknowledged part of marketing to use Social Media, there is a gap in the literature on how it should be used (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). Since Social Media is largely consumer controlled, it is difficult for companies to control the content (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Perhaps this is why many consumers find Social Media more trustworthy than corporate websites when searching for information (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). The use of Social Media has led to a shift in control and changes the way consumers search for information (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). Consumers today require around-the-clock access, and purchase decisions are increasingly made on the basis of Social Media (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). According to analyses presented by Michaelidou, Siamagka, & Christodoulides (2011), 93 % of users think that companies should have Social Media presence, and 85 % even believe that companies should communicate with their customers through Social Media. This result clearly shows the importance of using Social Media in marketing, but there are many ways to use Social Media. According to Kaplan & Haenlein (2010), companies should choose their Social Media carefully and focus on a few types of Social Media rather than on many different. Naturally, it is only sensible to use the Social Media types that are popular with the consumers your product is targeted at. Much advice is given by Kaplan & Haenlein (2010) on how to successfully use Social Media. One piece of advice is a coherent message throughout all platforms. If one chooses to be active on several different platforms, it is important that the same information is given, so the message is the same to all consumers. Another important point made by these researchers is that activity is important. There is no point in having Social-Media presence if it is not used actively.

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Social Media Marketing at VisitDenmark Amanda Bibelheimer Also, they suggest that companies have rules for the use of Social Media, so employees know what regulations to follow and the company’s credibility is not put at risk. Using Social Media in marketing has many advantages for companies. It is an inexpensive way to create brand awareness and brand loyalty (Hoffmann & Fodor, 2010). However, it is challenging to measure the Return on Investment (ROI) of Social Media marketing. The reason for this is, according to Hoffmann & Fodor (2010), that the brand awareness that comes from consumers sharing information on Social Media sites it not directly measurable. Social Media is an important tool in today’s marketing, but should still be seen as a supplement to regular marketing strategies (Dahlen, Lange, & Smith, 2010). If Social Media is used correctly, brand engagement is enhanced since consumers actively take part on the website, making them more involved (Hoffmann & Fodor, 2010). Social Media is rapidly evolving. Therefore it is important to keep up to get the most out of it. When launching campaigns on Social Media websites, they should be closely monitored (Hoffmann & Fodor, 2010). Social Media is a consumer-driven media which leaves little control to companies, making it difficult to manage content. But by monitoring and actively using Social Media it is possible to in part decide in which direction the content goes (Hoffmann & Fodor, 2010). Because the ROI is so difficult to measure, Social-Media marketing is at risk of being underestimated, because it does not in the same way give facts and numbers on ROI (Hoffmann & Fodor, 2010), However, due to the rapid development of the Web 2.0 and UCG, Social Media is becoming an important part of today’s marketing, and should not be underestimated, even though the ROI is difficult to measure, and will be shown primarily in the long term.

3.3 Social media in Tourism As in many other industries, the tourism industry has been highly affected by technological innovations. The way tourism-related information is both distributed and consumed has changed due to the internet (Xiang & Gretzel, 2010). Since tourism is an information-intense industry (Xiang & Gretzel, 2010), it is important for the industry to keep up with changes and to understand the effects of the change in distribution and accessibility of travel-related information (Xiang & Gretzel, 2010). Within the tourism industry, there are, according to Xiang & Gretzel (2010), two 9

Social Media Marketing at VisitDenmark Amanda Bibelheimer major trends: Social-Media Sites and media-file sharing. Travelers use these sites to share experiences, pictures, opinions and comments about their holidays. In this way Social-Media sites are used to portray, reconstruct and relive their travels. According to Munar (2011), the digital content that is now available increasingly influences the awareness and image creation of destinations. Destination branding is complemented though images (Munar, 2011), and the use of Social Media sites has led to a change in control, from the industry to the consumers (Xiang & Gretzel, 2010). As a consequence, the web-branding content today is to a larger extent dominated by the interaction and participation of the end users (Munar, 2011). Among other sites, websites such as Virtual Tourist and Tripadvisor give users the opportunity to rate destinations, hotels and attractions around the world. Often, this is regarded as more trustworthy than a company website when searching for information, since travelers prefer to receive information from personal sources (Jacobsen & Munar, 2012). Research by Yea, Law, & Guc, (2009) actually shows that the content of user reviews of hotels influence the number of bookings. Within tourism, the concept User Generated Content (UGC) can be compared to the term Tourism Created Content (TCC), which refers to the creative and active contributions of tourists on the internet (Munar, 2011). Many UCG-tools are today used by several tourism organizations and corporations in order to improve their communication and interaction with their members (Munar, 2011). Social Networking Sites such as Facebook and micro-blogging sites such as Twitter are increasingly used as information channels for tourism organizations (Jacobsen & Munar, 2012). The SNS Facebook is seen as less risky, since consumers assist each other in travel-information searches (Jacobsen & Munar, 2012).

3.4 Social Media in Germany Naturally, since every country is different, the trends within Social Media will also be different. Therefore, it is important to investigate what trends are dominant in the particular market, in order not to waste marketing money. So it is essential for VisitDenmark to take into account how Germans use Social Media when planning its Social-Media marketing.

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Social Media Marketing at VisitDenmark Amanda Bibelheimer When searching information for a holiday, Germans prefer to do thorough research, and often this research involves the more traditional ways, such as visiting travel agents to have all of their questions answered (VisitDenmark, 2013) prior to their holiday. During my time here in Germany, I have learned that Germans are not very happy about giving out private information on the internet. I have personally experienced many people who have fake names on Facebook, or do not want to have Facebook or download Apps that require personal information. This surprised me, since I have never seen this as an issue in Denmark. Looking at the percentage of the population using the most popular Social Networking Site, Facebook, Denmark ranks higher than Germany. According to Isherwood (2009) in 2009, 34 % of the population was on Facebook. Already in 2011 this number had increased to 51 % (Protalinski, 2012) showing Denmark in the top ten of Facebook users in the world, and it can be assumed that this number has increased further since then. 2013 statistics from IBM Research (2013) show that the percentage of Germans on Facebook is only 31 %. This low number corresponds well to the general impression that I have gained of the Germans. Germany is also not as mobile as the rest of the world. APPs and mobile use is rising rapidly (Tripadvisor, 2011), but in Germany it is still not as popular as in Denmark (BITKOM, 2011). Again, this can be influenced by the fact that many APPs require personal information, which Germans do not like to give out online.

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Social Media Marketing at VisitDenmark Amanda Bibelheimer

4. Analysis / Discussion

Halfway through my internship at VisitDenmark I can conclude that Social Media is being used to a certain extent both in the business tourism market, as well as leisure tourism market in order to improve its marketing communications. However, there is still plenty of room for improvement in the use of new Social-Media marketing tools. This chapter will present an analysis and discussion of the types of Social Media used at VDK Germany.

4.1 Blogs Especially blogs are an upcoming trend within VDK in Germany, as the number of Blogs is rapidly increasing in Germany. Blogs are seen as a very efficient and inexpensive marketing tool, with great visibility online. One of the campaigns VDK is working on at the moment is a part of a large EU-funded project where the German market chooses to use blogs in combination with their own website. VDK still sees this blogging campaign as test marketing, due to its relatively new position in the market. However, the advantages are often emphasized. It is clear to see that if this campaign proves to be successful, blogging will most likely become a more dominant marketing tool at VDK in the future. Among the reasons why blogging is more efficient than traditional marketing is that blogs are shared on various other Social Media platforms almost simultaneously with the actual blog post. It is clear that VDK Germany is aware of the huge potential for blogs as a marketing tool, also in combination with various other Social-Media sites. I have also been presented with many valid ideas as to how bloggers can be used in future marketing. I believe that the challenge is that Headquarters in Denmark control too much, and since blogs are not seen as a traditional marketing tool which they know is efficient, it is not being used to its full potential. Every VDK office needs to document how all the marketing funds are used, and to argue for these strategies. This could be a reason that the traditional types of marketing still dominate, leaving little space for test marketing which could be just as, or even more successful.

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Social Media Marketing at VisitDenmark Amanda Bibelheimer

4.2 Facebook VisitDenmark in Germany has their own Facebook page, with approximately 28,000 fans (December 2013). The online manager is responsible for maintaining the fan page, but in reality it is mostly the interns who are in charge of updating it. According to Midjysk Turisme (2013), it is recommended to get users involved on Facebook by uploading pictures, asking questions, and using it actively at least 3-4 times per week. At VDK in Hamburg the page is used actively, and usually 2-3 times per week. There is a guideline on how to write a post. For instance, each post should include a question and a picture, and if possible also a link to a website. It can be quite difficult to find pictures in the VisitDenmark media bank, and therefore much time is spent getting rights to use pictures we find on external websites. This process could definitely be more efficient if there were more pictures available within VDK. On the website it is very important that links we post are to German sites, since everything is translated here, and fans have actually complained if we posted links to English sites. This of course makes it challenging to find links, and sometimes ideas for posts are discarded due to lack of links and relevant pictures. One of the new initiatives for Facebook is the idea of a fan photo-album and cover photos from fans. The cover photo is to be updated every month and the fan photo album to be published every Friday. Fans then post pictures of Denmark on our wall and we use them for the album and cover photo. This is a good way to get the fans involved and also to receive free marketing of Denmark in the form of pictures. It seems Facebook is the most used social Networking Site within VDK, and it is even used in the production of the annual “Dänemark-brochure”. Since 2011 there has been a whole page dedicated to tips from the Facebook fans in the brochure. This year the focus is that Denmark is not as expensive as assumed, and therefore fans have been asked to give their own saving tips in Denmark. A selection of these will be used in the brochure for 2014. This is a great way to incorporate Social Media into an offline production to give it the kind of reliability which the Social Networking Sites are known for. It also makes the brochure speak informally to the end consumer, which is sorely needed in Germany, where the daily tone is highly formal. Much theory, as mentioned above, states that Facebook is often used as another communication channel between consumers and companies. This is also the case within VDK Hamburg. Many fans use the “message” application to communicate with us, to ask questions. Usually we are online

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Social Media Marketing at VisitDenmark Amanda Bibelheimer most of the day and have the chance to see the messages and answer within one day. Unfortunately, Facebook does not have a high priority, and is often forgotten in the light of more important tasks. One of the biggest differences between Social-Media marketing and traditional marketing is that Social-Media sites take power away from companies and empower users. This has been a challenge for VisitDenmark in Germany on one specific topic. Recently a new law on dogs in Denmark was passed, which created a huge drama in Germany, a country where many people like to travel with their dogs. This resulted in emails, phone calls and especially Facebook posts with people’s opinions of this law. Every time a new case from Denmark was published online, the spamming began. Initially, the corporate policy was that Facebook was free and we could not censor the posts and comments from users. However, the spamming became too much for Headquarters, which in the beginning of 2013 asked us to take control of the situation. This resulted in many comments and posts being deleted, hidden or blocked. Mostly, the “hide” function is used, since the user can then still see the post, but it is hidden to everyone else. This shows how strong the power is of the users, and how difficult it is as a company to manage the content on the page. It is partly manageable, but we need to be online all the time, to make sure that no new comments come that we do not want. Often the fans see the posts incredibly fast, and with 28,000 fans, many people get to see the posts before we do and have the chance to hide them.

4.3 Linkedin Generally Linkedin has not yet captured the German market, where for some years here has been a similar German version, Xing. This makes it difficult for Linkedin to enter the market, and Xing still has more German users than Linkedin (Appendix A). Linkedin is not used in leisure marketing in Germany. However, it is used in the business-tourism market. In relation to the MIND event 2014 in Copenhagen, Linkedin is used alongside Twitter. At this event, the participants are from all over the world, and therefore it can be beneficial to use Linkedin. Also, since this is business event, it makes sense to use business networks such as Linkedin and Twitter. These are generally seen as more “serious” networking sites, in contrast to for example Facebook.

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Social Media Marketing at VisitDenmark Amanda Bibelheimer The way Linkedin is used it by a “Join us in Linkedin” link on the website for the MIND event (http://www.visitdenmark.com/mind). By following the link, users land on a page for the group ”Meet in Copenhagen/Denmark”, which is a members-only group. On this page many of the participants post updates from the event while it is going on. It may be more favorable to have an open group or create it as a company that people can follow. People could be hesitant if they need to join the group, and wait for an “acceptance”. This group is also used on a daily basis, where professionals within the tourism industry share news and updates. However, these are mostly partners from Denmark, and it is not targeted at the German market. It is a challenge to include Linkedin in the market communication to the Germans, since it is such a small part of Germans who use Linkedin. Moreover, it is a Site used mostly for finding new jobs and keeping up professional relations.

4.4 Twitter Twitter is used by Headquarters in Denmark but not by the German office on a daily basis. However, when big events come up, it is taken into use. For example, for the upcoming event MIND in Copenhagen, which is a Business-tourism event on sustainable meetings, Twitter is used to promote the activities. An excel spreadsheet has been created by my colleague, to plan all the “tweets”, which will be published during the event. The tweets are to promote the event, activities and also the partners. My colleague is in charge of planning the Twitter updates, and according to her, one of the main challenges is that the partners that she has to promote are not on Twitter. This makes it difficult to tweet about partners, and she cannot understand why large hotels, such as Bella Sky are not on Twitter. Most importantly partners cannot see what people are writing about their companies on Twitter. As it is now, people are writing reviews of hotels on Twitter, but because they do not have a hashtag that people can connect to, it is impossible for the hotels to find the reviews. On a daily basis, Twitter is only used by the Danish office, which has a Twitter profile. The German market does not have its own hashtag, and this can be one reason that it is not used more in Germany. However, talking to our online manager about Twitter, she revealed that VDK Germany does not use Twitter because it does not reach their target group. 15

Social Media Marketing at VisitDenmark Amanda Bibelheimer

4.5 Instagram Instagram is not used actively by the German office, and there is no specific hashtag connected to VisitDenmark in Germany. However, Headquarters in Denmark use it more actively. There is a hashtag connected to Denmark, and on the Danish VisitDenmark website and on Facebook (Govisitdenmark), there is a link to Instagram pictures. Only in cross-national campaigns is Instagram used in the German market, for example, at the 100th birthday of the Little Mermaid, which was celebrated in all nine markets. For this campaign a common hashtag was created and an international Instagram competition was launched. Unfortunately, participation by the German population was not great. The reasons for this could be several. Firstly, the German “Fans” that VisitDenmark has are not used to Instagram competitions, since we do not use it actively and do not have a German hashtag they are familiar with. Secondly, it can also have to do with the fact that Instagram is not as used in Germany, which is also confirmed by Kirch (2013), who shows an overwiew of the most commony used Social media sites, where Instagram comes in eighth.

5. Conclusion Social Media is a term which has become most known in the 21 st century. It covers many different types of sites from blogs, social-networking sites to image-sharing platforms and virtual communities. Social Media distinguishes itself from traditional marketing by taking the power from the companies and placing it in the hands of the consumers, making it difficult for the companies to control the content on the sites. This paper has aimed to investigate the use of Social Media at VisitDenmark in Hamburg and to assess how it can be used to make its market communications more effective. VisitDenmark in Germany is present on only few Social Media platforms. It is recommended by researchers to choose Social Media presence wisely, and focus on a few platforms rather than on every site. This is what VisitDenmark Germany is doing by focusing mainly on blogs and Facebook in the leisure and Twitter in the B2B markets. It seems that it is only present on media where its target groups

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Social Media Marketing at VisitDenmark Amanda Bibelheimer are best reachable. However, there is still a large part of the leisure target group which is not online, which is the reason for the still large amount of printed material. Linkedin and Twitter are the preferred Social Media for the business part. However, they are used only sporadically and mostly up to and during events. This can be improved, and VisitDenmark Germany can become more present on these Media. Also, in order for VDK to successfully use Twitter as a marketing tool, it is crucial that the partners are also online, which is not the case at this time. Blogs are still in the starting-up face as a part of market communications at VisitDenmark, but they have a huge potential, due to the popularity of blogs in Germany. Blog use has still not been designed carefully and VDK does not have a blog database which can be used. All in all, VIsitDenmark needs to review and revise its entire Social-Media strategy in order to use these platforms optimally. Only then can it take advantage of the enormous resources which today’s Social Media represent.

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Social Media Marketing at VisitDenmark Amanda Bibelheimer

6. Evaluation of internship

The following chapter aims to cover the personal experiences of my internship at VisitDenmark in Hamburg. It will provide an evaluation of academic and personal achievements I have gained from this internship. My reason for choosing VisitDenmark was the size of the organization and the job opportunities after my internship. Within tourism in Denmark, VisitDenmark is one of the biggest organizations and can hopefully give me a job in the future. By choosing Germany, I hope to have the chance to improve my German skills, which will be an asset in my future career. This internship has given me the opportunity to convert theory into practice. Especially knowledge within the tourism industry gave me an advantage over the other interns, who had not studied tourism. My studies had given me basic vocabulary which proved to be beneficial. Also, during my studies within tourism, I have gained great background knowledge about the industry and its companies, which also served as important knowledge during my internship. Focusing on Social Media forced me to give more attention to all subjects regarding Social Media. Within my daily tasks, I was co-responsible for the Facebook site, which also is reflected in the analysis, where Facebook takes up more space than the other headlines. However, I have not had anything to do with the Business-tourism market and in the search of information for this report, I have been forced to show interest in the use of other platforms, and ask my colleagues how they used Social Media. Unfortunately, none of my colleagues had time for interviews, which meant that most of my information was given through random chats with colleagues. Being an intern at the VisitDenmark office in Hamburg has been a very rewarding experience. It has given me the insights into the organization, and given me knowledge on how a state-funded organization works. I have learned how much influence politics has when working in a state-funded company. The budgets of VDK are minimal, and are not sufficient for doing marketing campaigns. Therefore, VDK is dependent on funding from partners to take part in their campaigns. This Internship gave me the opportunity to take part in several meetings with partners, which I found informative. Taking part in meetings not only gave me knowledge about campaigns and partnercooperation, but also provided me with a broader network. I made sure to collect business cards from everyone I met, in case I might need them for a job in the future. The professional network I have gained from this

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Social Media Marketing at VisitDenmark Amanda Bibelheimer internship is not only from partners, but also internally within VDK. I have been working with people within VDK from Denmark and other-country offices, which gives me future networking benefits. I have learned many different tasks within marketing, and I have concluded that I would like to work within marketing in the future. I have never been very interested in marketing, but now that I have worked with many different types of marketing at VDK, I have found an interest in this specific area. My main interest is still tourism, and working at VDK combines both tourism and marketing. I have worked with many tasks within marketing, from offline brochures to social media and events. Some of my many job tasks have been: 

Assisting with the production of the two major offline brochures for 2014

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Assisting with a B2B brochure: proofreading, layout, pictures, text

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Sales presentations in both German and Danish

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Assisting with Press releases: content, pictures, distribution

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Assisting with Press trips: logistics, communication with journalists, researching

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Managing the German VisitDenmark Facebook page

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Translation to and from German/Danish/English

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Assisting with the newsletter

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Responsibility for the Info-telephone and email: Answering enquires about Denmark from tourists.

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Assisting with events

Not only has the internship been a learning experience for me, but also the experience of living in Hamburg has been exciting. I have never lived in Germany before, and did not have much knowledge of the city. It has been a learning experience for me, both academically and personally to live here for six months. Academically I have improved my German, which is an advantage for future jobs. Personally it has broadened my horizon on living in another country. It is always both challenging and fun to live abroad on your own, having to create a new network of friends and getting a normal day to function in new surroundings. I have enjoyed living I Hamburg, and have built up many new friendships, with many people I will hopefully see again. Hamburg is a wonderful city. It is very close to Copenhagen, both geographically and mentally, and I have found it easy to feel at home. I look forward to coming back to visit.

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Social Media Marketing at VisitDenmark Amanda Bibelheimer

7. Bibliography BITKOM. (2011). Soziale Netzwerke. Berlin: BITKOM. Bronner, F., & De Hoog, R. (2011). Vacationers and eWOM: Who Posts, and Why, Where, and What? Journal of Travel Research, 50, pp. 15-26. Bryman, A. (2008). Social Research Methods (Vol. 3rd ed.). Oxford University press. Dahlen, M., Lange, F., & Smith, T. (2010). Marketing Communications: A Brand Narrative Approach. West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Dholakiaa, U. M., Bagozzia, R. P., & Pearo, L. K. (2004). A social influence model of consumer participation in network- and small-group-based virtual communities. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 21, pp. 241–263. Erdoğmuş, İ. E., & Çiçek, M. (2012). The impact of social media marketing on brand loyalty. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 58, pp. 1353-1360. Gill, J., & Johnson, P. (2002). Research Methods for Managers (3. ed.). London: Sage Publishing. Hathaway, R. (1995). ASSUMPTIONS UNDERLYING QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE RESEARCH: Implications for Institutional Research. Research in Higher Education, 36(5), pp. 535-562. Hoffmann, D., & Fodor, M. (2010). Can You Measure the ROI of You Social Media Marketing? MITSloan Management Review, 52, pp. 41-49. Hvass, K. A., & Munar, A. M. (2012). The takeoff of social media in tourism. Journal of Vacation Marketing, 18(2), pp. 93-103. IBM Research. (2013, Januar 24). IBM Research. Retrieved December 05, 2013, from Percent of population using Facebook in countries using Facebook: http://www958.ibm.com/software/analytics/manyeyes/datasets/percent-of-population-usingfacebo/versions/1 Isherwood, J. (2009, Januar 26). Politiken.dk. Retrieved December 05, 2013, from Denmark leads Facebook stats: http://politiken.dk/newsinenglish/ECE636561/denmark-leads-facebookstats/ 20

Social Media Marketing at VisitDenmark Amanda Bibelheimer Jacobsen, J. K., & Munar, A. M. (2012). Tourist information search and destination choice in a digital age. Tourism Management Perspectives, 1, pp. 39-47. Johnson, R., & Onwuegbuzie, A. (2004). Mixed Methods Research: A Research Paradigm Whose Time Has Come. Educational Researcher, 7, pp. 14-26. Kaplan, A., & Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Business Horizons, 53, pp. 59-68. Kaplan, A., & Haenlein, M. (2011). Two hearts in three-quarter time: How to waltz the social media/viral marketing dance. Business Horizons, 54, pp. 253—263. Kelly, H. H. (1978). Interpersonal Relations. New York: Wiley. Kirch, N. (2013, April 07). Social media statistik. Retrieved November 24, 2013, from social media statistik: http://www.socialmediastatistik.de/auswertung-der-jahresumfrage-social-mediastatistik/ Larsen, J., Urry, J., & Axhausen, K. (2007). NETWORKS AND TOURISM, Mobile Social Life. Annals of Tourism Research, 34(1), pp. 244–262. Mangold, W., & Faulds, D. (2009). Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix. Business Horizons, 52, pp. 357-365. Michaelidou, N., Siamagka, N. T., & Christodoulides, G. (2011). Usage, barriers and measurement of social media marketing: An exploratory investigation of small and medium B2B brands. Industrial Marketing Management, 40, pp. 1153-1159. Midjysk Turisme. (2013). Effektmåling på SOCIALE MEDIER - En praktisk guide til turistbranchen. Silkeborg: Skabertrang Silkeborg Bogtryk. Miguéns, J., Baggio, R., & Costa, C. (2008). Social media and Tourism Destinations: TripAdvisor Case Study. Advances in Tourism Research, pp. 1-6. Munar, A. M. (2011). Tourist-created content: rethinking destination branding. International Journal Of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, 5(3), pp. 291-305.

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Social Media Marketing at VisitDenmark Amanda Bibelheimer Parasuraman, A., Berry, L. L., & Zeithaml, V. A. (1991, Winter). Refinement and Reassesment of the SERVQUAL scale. Journal of Retailing, Vol 67(4), pp. 420-450. Protalinski, E. (2012, Januar 4). ZDNet. Retrieved December 05, 2013, from Top 10 countries in Facebook adoption: December 2011: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/top-10countries-in-facebook-adoption-december-2011/6836 Saunders, M., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2007). Reseach methods for business students (5. ed.). Essex: Pearson Education Limited. Saunders, M., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2009). Reseach Methods for Business students (5th edd.). Essex: Pearson Education Limited. Schmallegger, D., & Carson, D. (2008). Blogs in tourism: Changing approaches to information exchange. Journal of Vacation Marketing, 14(2), pp. 99-110. Thackeray, R., Neiger, B. L., & Keller, H. (2012). Integrating Social Media and Social Marketing: A Four-Step Process. Health Promotion Practice, 13, pp. 165-168. Thackeray, R., Neiger, B. L., Hanson, C. L., & McKenzie, J. F. (2008 ). Enhancing Promotional Strategies Within Social Marketing Programs: Use of Web 2.0 Social Media. Health Promotion Practice, 9(4), pp. 338-343. The Associated Press. (2013, May 1). Number of active users at Facebook over the years. Retrieved August 17, 2013, from Yahoo News: http://news.yahoo.com/number-active-usersfacebook-over-230449748.html Thorsten Hennig-Thurau1, E.-m. t., Walsh, G., & Gremler, D. D. (2004). Electronic word-of-mouth via consumer-opinion platforms: What motivates consumers to articulate themselves on the Internet? Journal of Interactive Marketing, 18(1), pp. 38-52. Tripadvisor. (2011). Eye for travel 2011. Amsterdam: Tripadvisor. Unknown. (2010, April 12). Utalkmarketing.com. Retrieved October 06, 2013, from Tourism Queensland ‘Best Job In The World’ Social Media campaign: http://www.utalkmarketing.com/Pages/Article.aspx?ArticleID=17349

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Social Media Marketing at VisitDenmark Amanda Bibelheimer VisitDenmark. (2013, Januar N/A). Blogging strategi for VisitDenmark. Copenhagen, Denmark. Vries, L. d., Gensle, S., & Leeflang, P. S. (2012). Popularity of Brand Posts on Brand Fan Pages: An Investigation of the Effects of Social Media Marketing. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 26, pp. 83–91. Waters, R., Burnett, E., Lamm, A., & Lucas, J. (2009). Engaging stakeholders through social networking:How nonprofit organizations are using Facebook. Public Relations Review, 35, pp. 102–106. Xiang, Z., & Gretzel, U. (2010). Role of social media in online travel information search. Tourism Management, 31, pp. 179-188. Yea, Q., Law, R., & Guc, B. (2009). The impact of online user reviews on hotel room sales. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 28(1), pp. 180-182.

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Social Media Marketing at VisitDenmark Amanda Bibelheimer Appendix A Top 20 Social Networking Sites in Germany, March 2013 Source:http://meedia.de/internet/die-top-20-der-sozialen-netzwerke-indeutschland/2013/04/26.html

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